Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo – The Making of Harry Potter ワーナーブラザーススタジオツアー東京 ‐ メイキング・オブ・ハリー・ポッター

Home > TOKYO 東京都 > Nerima-ku 練馬区 > Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo – The Making of Harry Potter ワーナーブラザーススタジオツアー東京 ‐ メイキング・オブ・ハリー・ポッター

Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo – The Making of Harry Potter ワーナーブラザーススタジオツアー東京 ‐ メイキング・オブ・ハリー・ポッター

The Harry Potter Tokyo studio is conveniently located in central Tokyo, near Toshimaen Station (豊島園駅), about 15 minutes from Ikebukuro Station by train on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line.

Toshimaen Station on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line has been given a bold-red Harry Potter makeover, complete with a red telephone box.

The phone in the red telephone box works, but you only hear a simple recorded message like “Welcome.” It’s not a payphone and you cannot call anyone.

Small locomotive which was originally used at Toshimaen amusement park. For more details, see my blog post.

Harry Potter’s stag Patronus and doe near Toshimaen Station.

Entrance to Nerima Joshi Park and way to the Harry Potter studio.

Approaching the entrance to Harry Potter Studio in a public park in Tokyo in autumn.

Entrance to Harry Potter Studio in Tokyo.

Lobby and tour entrance straight ahead.

Hungarian Horntail, a dragon native to Hungary, greets you high above.

Cloakroom to store coats, bags, etc., for free.

The entrance lobby has digital audio guides for rent (not essential).

Floor map.

Entrance hall with pictures of movie scenes.

The tour starts in a room of animated movie posters where they explain a few rules. They also tell you how to register your QR code on your smartphone with your email address.

Door to the Great Hall to start the tour.

The Great Hall of Hogwarts (大広間)

The Great Hall of Hogwart.

Tableware in the Gryffindor section with their robes displayed behind.

About Gryffindor.

Tableware in the Slytherin section with their robes displayed behind.

About Slytherin.

Great Hall’s head table.

Hagrid

Severus Snape, potions professor and later Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts and Head of Slytherin House.

Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts headmaster.

Minerva McGonagall (next to Sorting Hat), Hogwarts Transfiguration professor, Head of Gryffindor House, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts.

Other professors.

Great Hall

Great Hall model.

Great Hall roof model.

Hogwarts Marble Staircase.

Hogwarts Marble Staircase which actually moves (swivels).

Moving portrait experience: Next to the Marble Staircase, you can be a moving portrait too. The studio’s first interactive experience has booths with different backgrounds to film yourself for 15 seconds.

Your short video will soon appear on one of the framed oil paintings on the staircase wall.

Gryffindor boys’ dormitory.

Gryffindor boys’ dormitory bed.

Gryffindor Common Room

Gryffindor Common Room fireplace.

Slytherin Common Room

On left is the costume worn by Ron and a chest of Quidditch balls.

Quidditch player uniforms. Draco Malfoy wears green, Cedric Diggory in yellow, and Harry in red.

Nimbus 2000 and Nimbus 2001 Quidditch broomsticks.

Quidditch filming experience: We visitors could act as spectators at a Quidditch match between Griffindore and Slytherin.

We visitors could act as spectators at a Quidditch match between Griffindore and Slytherin.

We could watch the resulting video almost immediately. Video was free to download later.

Props for Goblet of Fire.

Goblet of Fire, hand carved from English Elm.

Triwizard Cup and golden egg from Goblet of Fire.

Flying horse carriage.

Vanishing Cabinet which Draco used.

Griffin Stairwell to go to Dumbledore’s Office.

Dumbledore’s Office. The portraits are of the 48 former Hogwarts headmasters/mistresses.

In Dumbledore’s Office, on the left on the cabinet is Gryffindor’s Sword in a glass case.

Dumbledore’s Office complete with his pet phoenix Fawkes which moves and squeals (animatronic).

Thirty-three wands of all the wizards and witches.

Including the most powerful Elder Wand (No. 1).

Costumes and more props.

Broomstick prop.

Dumbledore’s beard and hair.

Death Eater masks.

Potions Classroom with over 1,000 bottles of potions line the walls.

Defence Against the Dark Arts Classroom.

Defence Against the Dark Arts Classroom. There was a wand-waving lesson to defeat a Death Eater (right) on the balcony.

Death Eater on the balcony.

Other professors.

Mirror of Erised which reflects the deepest, most desperate desire of your heart. Harry saw his parents in this mirror.

Library.

Library books.

About Voldemort, The Dark Lord.

Voldemort, The Dark Lord, and his snake Nagini. Each time one of his Horcruxes was destroyed, his greenish robe would fade in color (Deathly Hallows).

About the face of evil.

Notices at Hogwarts.

Forbidden Forest (禁じられた森)

Hagrid (half giant) and Buckbeak the Hippogriff (animatronic) in the Forbidden Forest.

Centaurs are guardians of the Forbidden Forest. Facial features are more horse-like than human.

Centaurs are guardians of the Forbidden Forest.

In Chamber of Secrets, they used five of these Flying Cars in various degrees of damage before Harry and Ron finally crashed it in the forest.

Dementors (evil beings) also fly around in the Forbidden Forest.

Giant spider Aragog the Acromantula in his lair in the Forbidden Forest.

In the middle of the tour, just when you’re ready to sit and have butterbeer or lunch, there’s the outdoor Backlot. Nice sunshine and fresh-air break from the indoor studio tour.

Hagrid’s Hut is also in the Backlot.

Hagrid’s Hut is very cluttered inside and pretty cramped for a half giant. Notice his dog Fang

Hagrid’s Hut bed.

Hagrid’s Hut

Photo op: In the Backlot, pose inside the Flying Car

Backlot Cafe for lunch. Located halfway through the studio tour.

Backlot Cafe

Butterbeer Bar

Butterbeer Bar for non-alcoholic butterbeer (¥1,100), coffee/tea (¥500), and salted popcorn (¥700).

Butterbeer tastes like butterscotch, slightly fizzy/carbonated with a buttery froth on the top.

4 Privet Drive (Dursley residence)

Harry’s closet-like room in the Dursley home named Cupboard under the Stairs.

The stairs overhead where Harry’s cousin Dudley Dursley would stomp on to annoy Harry below.

Living room filled with Hogwarts school acceptance letters (delivered by owls) addressed to Harry.

In Prisoner of Azkaban, Aunt Marge at dinner with the Dursleys angers Harry who inflates her into a balloon that floats out of the house and into the sky.

Don't mess with a wizard.

Aunt Marge as a balloon.

Aunt Marge as a balloon on her way to the sky.

Hogwarts Bridge

Hogwarts Bridge entrance.

Hogwarts Bridge

Giant chess pieces protecting the Philosopher’s Stone. Stationary and non-explosive.

Three-decker Knight Bus.

Beds inside the three-decker Knight Bus.

Next to the Knight Bus, red telephone box.

From the Backlot, the studio tour continues this way as we go back inside.

Photo op: Through the Wall. Push a baggage cart into the wall to enter Platform 9¾.

Luggage porter.

Hogwarts Express train on Platform 9¾ modeled after King’s Cross Station in London.

The full-scale train is the same make and model (GWR 4900 Class 5972 Olton Hall) as the original one displayed at the London studio.

The train is stationary, but you can enter the passenger carriage and see passenger compartments.

Inside Hogwarts Express train carriage.

This compartment shows Ron and Harry feasting on a pile of sweets. That’s when the chocolate frog jumped out.

The exterior windows are video monitors showing the passing scenery.

Across the platform is a Railway Shop for train-related gifts exclusive to Tokyo.

Railway Shop for train-related gifts exclusive to Tokyo.

London Ministry of Magic, Atrium (ロンドン魔法省)

London Ministry of Magic, Atrium is unique to the Tokyo studio. (Not found in the London studio.)

In the center is the “Magic is Might” monument depicting Muggles (non-magical people) crushed under the weight of a witch and wizard atop a marble column.

“Magic is Might” monument was installed by the Death Eaters (evil allies of Dark Lord Voldemort) when they took over the Ministry.

Coming out of the Floo Network fireplace next to Ministry of Magic. (Video screenshot). Another interactive activity where you walk out of the fireplace’s Floo powder flames upon arrival.

Animal actors included multiple owls for Hedwig, Harry’s owl.

Robotic Hagrid's head. The eyes blink realistically.

Werewolf animatronic.

The hilarious and finger-biting Monster Book of Monsters.

Realistic makeup on a Gringotts Bank teller goblin.

Hagrid’s giant half-brother, Grawp.

Sound effects.

For the movie actors, the broomsticks were custom-designed and fitted for each person. The stick was a solid metal pole strong enough to support the actor sitting on it in front of green screens.

Broomstick flying experience. It looks like a ride, but the broomstick is just a stationary prop you sit on and be filmed in a green screen booth. They charge ¥3,500 to download the broomstick video (without watermarks)..The staff tells you when to sway left or right, when to wave, when to reach out your hand to catch the Golden Snitch, etc. The resulting 70-sec. video shows you flying fast on a broomstick amid different background scenery like city streets, Quidditch field, and Hogwarts Castle.

Diagon Alley (ダイアゴン横丁)

Gringotts Bank (with goblin workers) has a facade, but we cannot enter it like at the Harry Potter London studio which has a full-size replica of the bank’s interior.

Diagon Alley facades.

Owls for sale at Diagon Alley.

The shops are just a facade, and we cannot enter any of them.

Typefaces.

The studio tour ends with a large, replicated scale model of Hogwarts Castle with alternating night and day illuminations.

Hogwarts Castle model in daylight illumination.

Looks different from different angles. Architecture was inspired by Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Durham Cathedral, and Alnwick Castle.

Hogwarts Castle (scale model) in night illumination.

Enhance to Studio Shop, the world’s largest Harry Potter gift shop.

Some items are Tokyo exclusive, available only here. You still need to buy studio tour tickets to enter the gift shop. You have a choice of 7,000+ products.